Weeks after Hurricane Beryl, Black Houston neighborhoods still recovering

Black and elderly neighbors relied on Houston civic club leaders—not government agencies—for ice, water, and food.

By Uyiosa Elegon, Prism

Photo: CBS Mornings

Weeks after Hurricane Beryl whipped through Gulf Coast communities, residents are still recovering from unprecedented power outages and damage.

More than 2.5 million homes, schools, and businesses lost power during the Category 1 hurricane, which passed directly over the Houston area on July 8. Hundreds of thousands remained without electricity for more than a week as they struggled to find fresh food and contact loved ones.

Heat index values rose into the 100s a day after the storm, making strenuous activity potentially life-threatening. Local news stations have reported 36 storm-related deaths, at least 16 of which were heat-induced.

Many residents are wondering how a Category 1 hurricane shut down the energy capital of the world, why marginalized communities experience the harshest ramifications of natural disasters, and what the future holds for their safety.

Wilbert Cooper, who lives in the Northwood Manor neighborhood in northeast Houston, has survived 24 years of storms in the area, including Category 4 Hurricane Harvey, which hit the area in 2017. For him, Beryl did the most damage, causing two trees to fall and damage his home.

“This was different because of all the trees that fell. And how windy it was,” Cooper said. “We didn’t get much rain. It’s just a lot of wind. And a lot of trees fell.” Fallen trees across the city damaged buildings and power lines and complicated recovery efforts for those willing to drive to heavily affected areas. Cooper and his majority-Black and elderly neighbors relied on their civic club leaders—not government agencies—for ice, water, and food.

Elected officials don’t interact much with Cooper and his neighborhood, so in times of disaster, his assistance is always community-driven, he said. 

“We haven’t saw [Mayor John Whitmire]. We haven’t saw ’em passing through, talking to the people,” Cooper said. “You can never be visual unless you talk to people that’s involved with the situation that’s happening.”

Mayor Whitmire did not provide a statement responding to Mr. Cooper’s concerns in time for publishing.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, Houston area city officials, philanthropists, and sports teams dubbed community-driven, goodwill rebuild efforts as being “Houston Strong,” but resident Xitlalli Alvarez Almendariz understands the slogan as a resiliency trap.

“That’s such a silly direction to take it. A lot of people are really angry, and rightfully so,” Alvarez Almendariz said. “It’s not that we’re not actually strong, but it’s that the attention needs to be on dismantling the systems that are allowing for these episodes to continue to have such disproportionate impacts on communities that already are suffering from injustice and a very messed up arrangement we have under capitalism.”

Alvarez Almendariz is a Harvard University Ph.D. candidate studying disaster and colonialism in the Texas Gulf Coast. For almost six days without electricity, he and his neighbors powered fans and medical equipment by using small power stations loaned by West Street Recovery, a local disaster recovery nonprofit organization. Many of his Black elderly neighbors opted to sit in their air-conditioned cars during the day to avoid heat-induced illnesses.

While making ice deliveries to chill his neighbors’ medicines and food, Alvarez Almendariz noticed that many wealthier and whiter Houston neighborhoods had power restored days before his Southside neighborhood. He wasn’t surprised.

“We live in a society that is deeply, historically racist, classist, and ableist,” Alvarez Almendariz said. He said if systemic oppressions are left unaddressed, recovery efforts will always be difficult “for people who are already having a hard time accessing basic, life-saving resources—whether it’s food, water, clean air outdoors or cool air inside.”

In 2018, the Urban Institute published “Measuring Inclusion in America’s Cities,” a dashboard that ranked large U.S. cities using several measures of inclusion. Houston ranked 273rd out of 274 cities on overall inclusion, 264th on economic inclusion, and 261st on racial inclusion. Instead of discussing Alvarez Almendariz’s concerns of underinvestment and inequity, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently ordered an investigation of CenterPoint Energy.

CenterPoint maintains electric infrastructure vital to millions of residents affected by Beryl-related power outages. The company is a regulated monopoly, meaning the state of Texas has given it the exclusive right to be the sole electricity provider in the area. If residents want a more resilient electricity infrastructure, the state’s close relationship with CenterPoint technically gives Houstonians a strong fighting chance. However, Stephany Valdez finds it hard to trust Gov. Abbott. 

“It’s about being realistic with who our state officials are,” Valdez said. “We see Abbott and [Lt. Gov.] Dan Patrick saying ‘we’re gonna hold CenterPoint accountable’ … But then you go and look at their funders, and it’s [CenterPoint].”

Gov. Abbott’s office did not provide comment in time for publishing. 

Photo: FOX 26.

Valdez is the Water Justice Community Organizer at the Coalition for Environment, Equity, and Resilience (CEER), a Houston-area organization that brings together 27 organizations to meet the needs of communities impacted by environmental pollution, hazards, and climate change.

“I think people should know that these disasters are unnatural,” said Valdez. “This shouldn’t be this bad. And I think it’s time for people to start acknowledging climate change and how it affects the most vulnerable.”

Federal forecasters announced predictions of an “above-normal” Atlantic hurricane season earlier this year. Near-record warm ocean temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean were among the driving factors of the prediction.

Because Valdez knew the Gulf of Mexico is getting warmer due to climate change, she spent weeks leading up to Beryl’s landfall dissuading friends from following storm models that predicted a South Texas impact. She correctly predicted the hurricane would spend more time in the gulf and curve north toward Houston, a city intimately tied to the very industries that fuel climate change.

Since the early 1900s, companies have produced and exported oil from the Houston Ship Channel, using the Gulf of Mexico as their main transportation route. Today, Houston is home to more than 4,700 energy-related firms. Valdez described the city’s relationship to the local energy industry as a vicious cycle. The city welcomes more energy companies, boosting the revenues of a sector that influences various regulatory agencies. Accrued political and economic power shield the industry from punishments when organizers like Valdez call foul play.

Days after Beryl’s destruction, Air Alliance Houston, a member organization of CEER, posted a video that captured a prevailing, sober sentiment amongst residents. The video shows a resident jet-skiing through a flooded highway with overlaid text saying Houstonians have only two choices: resiliency or death.

As climate change worsens and weather-related disasters increase, many residents believe the best option is to fight to live where they are. According to Cooper, “You go to Canada, you gonna deal with the ice. You go to Colorado, you gonna deal with the ice slides. You go to California, you gonna deal with the mudslides. I mean, where you gonna go?”

Prism is an independent and nonprofit newsroom led by journalists of color. We report from the ground up and at the intersections of injustice.”